Flight has Jim feeling like a kid again

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Retired electrical engineer and former pilot Jim Linton of Wellington celebrated probably his final visit to Gisborne, his place of birth, with a flight in local Tiger Moth “Snafu” at the weekend.

Pilot Patrick Callaghan took the 91-year-old up in Snafu while he was back “home” visiting whānau and made a chance visit to the Gisborne Aviation Preservation Society hangar at Gisborne Airport.

It tuned out to be a reconnection for him with a Tiger Moth.

“I was training to be a pilot in Tiger Moths in the 1950s but I realised there were a lot of pilots looking for jobs after the war,” Jim said.

Instead he chose electrical engineering at Canterbury University and carved out a successful career in the energy sector, becoming chief engineer of the local power board in Lower Hutt.

Mr Linton went to Kaiti School and finished his education in Wellington when his parents moved to further their careers.

The sprightly nonagenarian said flying in the Tiger Moth at the weekend “was a new experience.”

“I'm in my second childhood,” he said.

Paddy said it was “one of the biggest thrills of my life to fly with Jim . . . it was a real pleasure”.

Jim is eight years older than the local Tiger Moth, which was built in 1959, and Paddy said “both Jim and Snafu performed exceptionally well”.

Travelling with his family from Australia and New Zealand, Jim flew back to Gisborne to reconnect with the street he grew up in and Kaiti School.

Jim and his family return to Wellington this week.

He expressed his gratitude to Paddy and Gisborne Aviation Preservation Society for a memorable and enjoyable flight.